"Some would suggest that there has been a dramatic change in our perception of the world and ourselves within the world. Others have observed that there has been an almost complete about-face in a relatively short span of time"
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Campbell’s line is politics doing what it does best: describing upheaval without owning it. The phrasing is a study in careful distance. “Some would suggest” and “Others have observed” outsource the claim to an unnamed crowd, a rhetorical maneuver that lets a politician acknowledge rupture while keeping fingerprints off the diagnosis. It’s both an invitation and a shield: listeners can project their preferred crisis - social change, economic realignment, geopolitical shock, cultural fragmentation - and Campbell can nod along without specifying a culprit or a remedy.
The power here is in the double turn of “perception” and “about-face.” “Perception of the world and ourselves within the world” frames change as psychological and civic at once: not merely new facts, but new identities. That’s a politician’s way of saying the electorate’s common sense has shifted, which is often more consequential than any single policy debate. Then comes “almost complete about-face,” a phrase that carries moral and strategic implications. An about-face suggests reversal, maybe even betrayal: yesterday’s consensus is today’s embarrassment.
Contextually, this kind of language thrives in moments when institutions sense the ground moving but can’t yet name a stable story - late Cold War whiplash, post-9/11 recalibration, the digital media explosion, the aftershocks of recession. Campbell’s intent seems to be to legitimize disorientation as real and rapid, preparing an audience to accept change (or austerity, or reform) as unavoidable. The subtext: you’re not imagining it, things flipped - and leadership is positioning itself as the sober narrator of the flip rather than the agent responsible for it.
The power here is in the double turn of “perception” and “about-face.” “Perception of the world and ourselves within the world” frames change as psychological and civic at once: not merely new facts, but new identities. That’s a politician’s way of saying the electorate’s common sense has shifted, which is often more consequential than any single policy debate. Then comes “almost complete about-face,” a phrase that carries moral and strategic implications. An about-face suggests reversal, maybe even betrayal: yesterday’s consensus is today’s embarrassment.
Contextually, this kind of language thrives in moments when institutions sense the ground moving but can’t yet name a stable story - late Cold War whiplash, post-9/11 recalibration, the digital media explosion, the aftershocks of recession. Campbell’s intent seems to be to legitimize disorientation as real and rapid, preparing an audience to accept change (or austerity, or reform) as unavoidable. The subtext: you’re not imagining it, things flipped - and leadership is positioning itself as the sober narrator of the flip rather than the agent responsible for it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Change |
|---|
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